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The WSH Council has identified 18 companies from the construction, manufacturing, and transportation industries to be in the pioneer batch of WSH Advocates.
Singapore's Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSHC) has introduced ther WSH Advocate Programme, which will comprise major service buyers with extensive supply chains to champion WSH excellence.
Announced by Minister for Manpower Dr. Tan See Leng at the eighth edition of The Singapore Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Conference, the new initiative hopes to incentivise SMEs to invest in WSH.
Under the programme, WSH Advocates will play a crucial role in influencing their contractors, particularly SMEs, to adopt robust WSH practices. These are industry leaders with significant supply chains and outreach. The advocates will lead higher WSH standards by doing the following:
- Require all contractors and sub-contractors doing manual work in their premises to have WSH accreditation, such as at least bizSAFE Level 3;
- Favour awarding contracts to safer contractors, by making good WSH performance a qualifying criteria to a vendor, or by putting weightage on past WSH performance in evaluating prospective contractors;
- Reward contractors for good WSH performance on their projects, through greater preference for future contracts, or with monetary bonuses; and
- Develop contractors’ and sub-contractors’ WSH capability through sharing best practices, training or engagement opportunities.
As of its launch, the WSHC has identified 18 companies from the construction, manufacturing, and transportation industries to be in the pioneer batch of WSH Advocates.
In his speech, Minister Tan shared that Singapore has seen an improvement in its WSH performance over the last two years, achieving a record low fatal injury rate of below 1 per 100,000 workers in 2023.
However, Minister Tan cautions: "This does not mean we have “arrived”. Sustaining this level of WSH performance will require our continued commitment and focus."
He then broke down the three essential 'ABC's' of WSH — alignment, boldness, collaboration.
Abu Bakar Mohd Nor, Chairman of the WSH Council, commented: “It is heartening that Singapore achieved such a milestone in WSH performance last year, positioning us as a country with one of the lowest fatality rates in the world. We want and must do even better, and a key and significant partner for us in this journey would be the “WSH Advocates”."
Chairman Abu Bakar also expressed his hope to have more WSH Advocates in more industries: "We can then have a more pervasive culture of WSH excellence, thereby promoting a safer and healthier working environment for all.”
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